It’s hard to think of Jim Whalen’s 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais as a Super Stock relic, but the now 33-year-old car is a throwback to the era of the 1990s and early 2000s when front wheel drive conversions proliferated the NHRA class racing ranks. Not exactly masculine and menacing on the showroom floor, racers found these low-priced, compact domestic cars took on a whole new attitude when transformed into race cars.

Whalen’s lives out his passion for the sport behind the wheel of his GT/G Automatic (GTGA) division. What started as a simple bracket racing hobby evolved into a competitive endeavor where Whalen pushes his skills and combination to the limit in the bracket and heads-up Super Stock class.

“I started racing when I was probably 12 or 13 years old,” Whalen shares of his racing history. “My cousins actually had a drag car they raced at the local ‘strip in Illinois, and they got me involved with the little motorcycle I had — the track actually let me race it before I had my driver’s license. From there, it just evolved into more and more. Later in life, I was bracket racing and my son wanted to go Stock Eliminator racing and talked me into it, so one thing has led to another.”

The heart of Whalen’s Cutlass Calais is a 350 cubic inch engine rated by the NHRA at 255 horsepower, though it’s clear the motor is pushing much more than that. “It’s a 350, 255 horse, carbureted motor,” Whalen explains. The engine was built by Larry Allen out of Winnemack, Indiana, a trusted name in high-performance class racing builds. The transmission setup is a Pro Trans 350 Hydro, ensuring as little precious horsepower is lost in the driveline as Whalen competes against the GT/GA index and his competitors in heads-up competition at the highest levels.

Originally built by a shop in Nebraska, the chassis of Whalen’s car is modeled after an F.J. Smith design, a well-known builder of Super Stock cars in the ’90s. “Some guys in Nebraska…they kind of copied it off a Smith build,” Whalen says. “We’ve done a fair amount of work since we got it, but it’s a good car,” he adds.

The car also features an F.J. Smith front end and a four-link rear suspension — something it most certainly did not come from the factory equipped with.

Whalen came into possession of his prized Calais five years ago through a fortuitous opportunity with his friend Bill Jenkins from Kansas. Jenkins, who originally ran the car in Division 5, had newer cars in his fleet, and Whalen saw the chance to upgrade his own race efforts. “I had a Stocker at the time and decided I wanted to go Super Stock racing, so I bought that from him,” Whalen said. Since then, the car has undergone numerous modifications and improvements to ensure it stays competitive.

On the track, the Cutlass Calais is impressive, regularly running the quarter mile in the 9.80s at speeds of around 132 mph. With looks that today well outkick its original coverage, Whalen’s 1991 Cutlass Calais stands out in the NHRA Super Stock scene . For Whalen, it’s the perfect combination of nostalgia and modern engineering that keeps him racing.